From All the Star-Sown Sky
by Supernova1701
Summary: A small group of cadets is on board Voyager when it is drawn into the Delta Quadrant, and one in particular poses a serious problem for Commander Chakotay. Secrets, lies and impossibilities push the crew to their limits, and the presence of cadet Lilliana Novacelik forces Chakotay to question more than just the truth about his past.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

"Tell me, cadet, do you especially enjoy the interior of the brig?" Commander Chakotay slammed a tricorder down onto his desk, his face thunderous.

"No sir," Lilli replied calmly. "Why do you ask?"

He looked at her incredulously.

"Are you serious? Are you really that arrogant?"

Lilli frowned.

"Do you think you can use your own access code to lock a senior officer in a turbo lift for fifteen minutes and get away with it?"

"Sir, if I were going to lock a senior officer in a turbo lift, I wouldn't use my own access code to do it. That's not arrogant, that's stupid."

"So is being caught on camera, but you appear to have done that too," he barked, pointing to the screen next to him. It was displaying a picture of her, crouching next to an open turbo lift electronics panel. She was holding a screwdriver.

"Sir… I didn't…"

"I don't want to hear it, cadet," his voice boomed. "This is the second time this week that I've had to call you in here. I understand that practical jokes are common among cadet intakes, but they will not, under any circumstances, be tolerated when they involve senior officers and directly affect the work of this ship and its crew. Your little stunt kept me off of the bridge at a time when I was needed."

Lilli narrowed her eyes, clasping her hands together behind her back.

"Did someone put you up to it? Or were you acting alone?"

Lilli remained silent. There was no point telling him that she hadn't been anywhere near the electronics panel at the time and location the picture displayed, and there was even less point claiming that she'd had nothing at all to do with the incident. He simply wouldn't believe her.

"Lie, or tell me the truth – I don't care," Chakotay growled. "But either way, you will answer a commanding officer when you are asked a question."

She looked up at him carefully.

"Sir, I apologise for my actions, and will accept the consequences," she said, only just refraining from gritting her teeth. Chakotay was, understandably, irritated, and the evidence was stacked against her. It made sense to back down and find a way to prove her innocence once he'd calmed down.

"Should I go to the brig?" she asked quietly. Chakotay shook his head slowly, a muscle in his cheek twitching.

"If it were up to me you'd be there already, but it would appear that the Captain would like to speak to you. Sit down – she's on her way."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"I heard you got into trouble again." The door closed with a swishing sound, and Ensign Megan Deniston slumped down on her bunk with a sigh.

"What did you do this time?"

Lilli didn't turn around or look up, and instead continued to gaze out of the wide window, her legs drawn up under her. All her life she'd dreamed of working in space, and now it was her permanent home. It didn't matter how many hours she spent staring at it – and those hours were great in number after several months in the Delta Quadrant - it never got any less beautiful.

"Lil," Meg said gently. "You alright?"

"I think you should ask for a new roommate," Lilli replied after a moment's silent deliberation. "It's not good for you to be associated with me anymore."

Meg sighed again, this time through gritted teeth.

"Not this again. I don't want a new roommate."

Lilli looked around sharply.

"Don't be stubborn and stupid," she snapped. "You know I'm right."

Meg narrowed her eyes.

"Call me names if you want to, Lilli, but don't pretend that this is about me. If you're hell-bent on ruining your career before it even really begins, and on pushing everyone away all the time, then go ahead – but don't say that nobody ever tried to help you."

She stood up, folding her arms.

"Did Janeway send you?" Lilli asked, unfazed by her friend's obvious irritation. "She said all of that too. It's like you're a clone of her sometimes."

"You know why?" Meg snapped back. "Because she cares like I do. She's a good captain, and if you had a shred of sense you'd see that she wants the best for you." She moved to stand in front of the mirror, letting her long, dark hair down.

"I'm not having this conversation again. I'm not asking for a new roommate that that's the end of it. Whether you like it or not, I'm going to keep annoying you by trying to be a good friend, and one day you'll realise that I'm not going anywhere."

Lilli smiled, looking out of the window again.

"You _are_ a good friend, Meg. Thanks."

"Are you going to tell me what you did? When Chakotay came back to the bridge he looked like he was going to explode."

Kicking her boots off, Meg disappeared into the bathroom.

"Believe it or not, I didn't actually do anything. He was in the turbo lift and it jammed between levels three and four. Turns out someone stopped it there on purpose, for around fifteen minutes, and they think it was me."

"What?" Meg's head popped around the bathroom door, and she frowned. "Why would you do that?"

"Well I didn't, but he and Tuvok seem to think I was playing some sort of practical joke."

"Why do they think it was you?"

"Because… my access code was used. I tried to tell Chakotay that I wouldn't be so stupid as to use my own, but… he had a picture of me messing with the lift's electronics."

Meg came out of the bathroom, holding a coat hanger with her uniform on it. Lilli glanced at the shiny gold pip on the collar, and then looked away. It didn't go unnoticed by Meg, who hurriedly hung the uniform in the wardrobe and closed the door. Lilli frowned, trying to ignore the surge of emotion in her chest.

"I worked hard, Meg," she said quietly. "For years. All I wanted was to become an officer in Starfleet. I didn't think it would go like this." She leaned her head against the window, hugging her knees to her chest.

Meg sat down beside her and squeezed her shoulder.

"Lil, no-one could predict what happened. I'm sure if the captain and Chakotay knew…"

"No," Lilli snapped. "No-one is to know. You promised you wouldn't tell anyone." Her eyes flashed for a moment, and Meg nodded silently.

"I did, and I won't. But you have to know that it will come out sometime. It's inevitable."

"And I'll handle it when it does." She turned back to her view. "You know I'm happy for you, don't you?" she said quietly. "You're making a brilliant ensign."

Meg smiled.

"You'll make one too, someday soon. You won't be a cadet forever – you're too good at your job. If you could just stop locking the commander in the turbo lift."

"I didn't," Lilli growled. "Someone took my code and accessed the system as me. I have no idea how – it certainly looked like me, but it wasn't. I swear."

Meg stared at her for a moment, reading her face.

"I believe you," she said, frowning worriedly. "But it's a problem that someone is convincingly impersonating you to do things like that. What are you going to do?"

Lilli took a deep breath, and then sighed slowly, leaning her head back against the glass.

"Neither Janeway nor Chakotay believed me when I told them it wasn't me. I told them to look at the cameras for the mapping lab – that's where I was at the time Chakotay's turbo lift went down, but when they drew up the footage, it didn't show me. I wasn't there – even though I was. I don't know what's going on, or why someone needed Chakotay out of the way, but I'm being framed."

Meg nodded.

"After what happened on Tuesday, you make a good candidate to frame – it worked, didn't it? Chakotay was already on the warpath, and he didn't need much of a reason to believe it was you this morning."

"Exactly."

They sat in silence for a moment.

"What's Janeway decided? You being thrown in the brig again?"

Lilli shook her head.

"No, I get one last chance, apparently. I have to figure out what's going on here Meg. I didn't do this."

"Right," Meg said cheerfully. "Let's get cracking then."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Chakotay pinched the bridge of his nose, willing his headache to dissipate. Leaning back in his chair, he closed his eyes for a moment, trying to clear his mind. Interrupted by the sound of someone at his door, he cleared his throat.

"Come in," he said, surprised to see Captain Janeway when the doors parted. He was only halfway to his feet when she gestured to him to sit, doing so herself in the chair opposite his desk.

"Captain," he said. "Is everything alright?"

"That's what I came to ask you," Janeway replied, looking directly at him. "I've just spoken with Cadet Novacelik."

Chakotay's expression clearly conveyed his irritation, as did, he knew, his voice.

"I'm not convinced she's taking the turbo lift incident seriously," he said. "But then, she doesn't seem to take much seriously."

Janeway crossed one leg over the other, resting her hands together on her elevated knee. She looked like she was carefully weighing what she was going to say. When she spoke, she did in a measured tone.

"May I ask you a question, Commander?"

"Of course," he replied, wondering where she was going.

"I know you to be a fair man, and you are used to dealing with insubordinate and reckless behaviour from the Maquis. You have done so on my behalf, quite recently in fact. And yet, you seem to be particularly bothered by a Starfleet Cadet with a penchant for practical jokes. Is there a reason that Lilli has gotten so… under your skin?"

Acutely aware that she was studying his face, Chakotay looked down at his desk for a moment, silently considering her question. She was right – the Maquis were not an easy bunch to keep in line, and he had never found any of them capable of pushing his buttons like Novacelik did. It wasn't that she was overtly disrespectful – she wasn't. She was clearly very talented, exceptionally good at her job, and was capable of a great career with Starfleet. It was her flippancy. Her apparent lack of concern for following rules, or for inspiring the other Cadets to do so. There was something off about her – something he couldn't verbalise, and could only feel. He barely understood it himself, so explaining it to the Captain would be tricky.

"The incident on Tuesday was beneath her. She's better than that – the others look up to her, and I'm concerned she'll lead them astray."

"Remind me what happened on Tuesday," Janeway said.

"I had to escort Cadet Johnson to sickbay after Novacelik injured him. No-one is sure exactly how it happened –Johnson was a jabbering wreck and refused to talk about it or press any formal charges. He has only returned to duty today. As has Novacelik – I confined her to the brig from the time of the incident until this morning. Apparently four days in solitary confinement did absolutely no good at all."

Janeway frowned.

"Is there any possibility that what happened on Tuesday could have been an accident?"

Chakotay leaned back in his chair.

"There were strange scorch marks on Johnson's clothing. We checked all of the electrics in the mapping lab where the two of them were working, thinking it might have been an electrical burst or something from one of the panels, but they were all fine. The only thing that tested positive for emissions was Novacelik's phaser."

Captain Janeway's eyes widened.

"One of my Cadets shot a phaser at another and she was only in the brig for four days? Why wasn't I made aware of this?"

"There's no evidence that she shot it in malice. She claims that it was in her hand and she forgot to set it to lock, and that Johnson entered the lab quietly and startled her, causing her to use it by accident. It was set to stun, and caused only superficial damage, mostly to his uniform. I placed Novacelik in the brig for four days for extreme and dangerous negligence. She needed to learn not to make careless mistakes that could cost lives. I didn't mention it because we were dealing with far more important issues at the time, and it seemed fairly routine."

Janeway looked concerned.

"So an otherwise brilliant Cadet is startled and shoots one of her colleagues by accident, and four days later responds to punishment with retaliation against the ship's first officer?"

Chakotay nodded.

"I don't understand it either, Captain. Not even the Maquis ever behaved in such a way."

"What do we know about her?" Janeway asked. "I must confess I've been so busy and preoccupied that I have taken little to no time to really get to know the Cadets, and I learned very little from talking to her."

Chakotay turned his attention to his view-screen, typing in Novacelik's personnel file number. He'd been curious after the phaser incident, and had looked her up several times since. He remembered the number. A picture of her came up on the screen, with a few paragraphs of text.

"Not much, I'm afraid. It looks as if she joined Starfleet at the age of 23, which was three years ago. As with the other cadets, she was assigned to Voyager in her final year at the Academy, and was due to graduate upon returning. Her professors noticed a particular aptitude for stellar cartography, which is why she was assigned to Voyager's mapping unit, and for the most part she's been pretty excellent at it whilst on board. She also speaks several alien languages, including Romulan and Vulcan, with some Klingon."

He flicked through the file on the screen to a section at the end.

"The odd thing is that there's nothing in her file about her life before Starfleet. She hasn't come up in several extensive searches, and being so far from Federation space I can't widen the search. Tuvok and I suspect a name change or something. When we asked her about it, she declined to comment, claiming it wasn't relevant to her service."

Janeway frowned again.

"What about her conduct at the Academy? Any altercations or discipliaries?"

Chakotay shook his head.

"It seems as if her behaviour took a turn for the worse only after Voyager was marooned in the Delta Quadrant. There's nothing recorded. Though, I hear chatter that she's a bit of a legend at the Academy for… various reasons. Party related ones, it would seem."

Janeway raised her eyebrows, a hint of a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"Who is she close to? Does she have friends?"

Chakotay nodded, closing the file on the screen.

"Ensign Meg Deniston, her roommate, is very protective over her and seems to be quite close to her. She also seems to have a natural affinity with B'Elanna."

"I wonder why that is?" Janeway smirked. "B'Elanna could be good for her."

Chakotay narrowed his eyes.

"Captain, do you mind me asking why Novacelik isn't in the brig? She kept the first officer of this ship off of the bridge during our Kazon run-in, for the sake of a joke."

Janeway stood up slowly, walking to the window. She stood next to it and folded her arms.

"The brig isn't always the answer, Commander. I sense that there's a lot more to Novacelik than she's letting on, or than we can gather from her flimsy file. We won't find out what it is if we keep locking her up. When I spoke to her, it was as if there were things she wanted to tell me, but couldn't. I plan to try and get to the bottom of it."

Chakotay studied her for a moment. The Captain was one of the best judges of character he'd ever met, and it was clear that she had learned from her interaction with his Maquis crew that people were not always what they seemed. Being betrayed by both Tuvok and Seska had made him much more cautious and reluctant to trust, but if there was one person he trusted unconditionally, it was Janeway.

"Don't get me wrong," she said, turning to face him. "The incident has not gone unpunished. I've condemned her to a month helping Neelix in the kitchen."

Chakotay laughed softly.

"That's a little harsh Captain. Personally I'd prefer the brig."

Janeway smiled widely, making for the door. Turning back to him before she opened it, she hesitated.

"Commander," she said softly. "You once asked me to believe in a crew member you knew had more to her than I was seeing, and I did. B'Elanna is now one of the most valuable members of this entire crew. I trusted your judgement, and looked past what I was seeing. I'd like to ask you to do the same for me. Will you make an effort with Lilli? I think, with a little effort, we might make a first-rate officer of her yet."

Chakotay smiled. The Captain was fair – and she was right.

"Yes, Captain," he said. "I'll try."

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Did you speak to Paris?" Meg said, lowering her voice so that only Lilli could hear her. She plonked her tray down on the table, having deliberately chosen the one furthest away from everyone else. Lilli looked around quickly, and perched on the edge of a seat opposite her friend.

"I did," she replied, almost whispering. "He says he looked at the camera footage and it's been altered. Someone manipulated it."

"Does he know who?" Meg stirred her soup with her spoon, looking over Lilli's shoulder to check that there were no senior officers in the mess.

"Not yet, but he thinks he can find out."

"I'm glad he's willing to help. Tom's used to being on the end of wrongful accusations. He's done his fair share of proving doubters wrong."

"He was quite sympathetic," Lilli said. "He promised he wouldn't say anything until we have a better idea of what's going on. He did say that from the time coding he thinks it was done a little while ago – maybe weeks, so whatever's going on, it was well planned."

"If it was weeks ago, could it have been Seska? She was still on board then." Meg turned her attention to her hand-held screen, typing Seska's name into the crew database.

"Maybe."

Meg sipped her soup and grimaced.

"So how's it going in there?" she asked, gesturing towards the kitchen with a wide grin. "You haven't killed Neelix yet then?"

Lilli cocked her head on one side.

"If that hasn't changed by the end of the month, it will be one hell of a miracle."

"Cadet,"

They both jumped at the sound of Tuvok's voice.

"I thought you were supposed to be spending all of your non-working hours assisting Mr Neelix in the kitchen. You appear to be chatting with a friend."

Though he stood directly behind her, Lilli did not turn around. She clenched her jaw and stared blankly at Meg.

"I asked Cadet Novacelik to help me, Lieutenant," Meg said quickly. "I needed some information on a map." She had covered the screen with her arm, concealing the search results on Seska from the Vulcan's view.

"I am sure that you could have retrieved the information from the Stellar Cartography department quite without Cadet Novacelik's help," Tuvok said sternly. "Cadet, please return to the kitchen."

Lilli half-smiled her thanks at Meg, standing up slowly. Turning around, she took a deep breath and summoned all the grace that she could.

"I apologise, Lieutenant. It won't happen again."

She walked past him, making her way towards the kitchen hatch with her head down. The hardest part about the situation wasn't that she appeared to be constantly in trouble – life before Starfleet had been so insufferable that the brig felt like five-star accommodation. It was the fact that people she deeply respected thought less of her. She'd heard stories about Captain Janeway, and if there had been anyone she'd have wanted as her first Captain, it was her. Tuvok was also famous at the Academy, and she'd looked forward to learning from him. Now they both thought she was a waste of space. Watching Meg get her Ensign pip had really, really hurt. They had started training together, worked hard to rise to the top of the class, and had rejoiced together at being posted to Voyager. Then, lost in the Delta Quadrant, things had begun to change. Strange things were happening – things she couldn't explain and didn't understand, and people she'd wanted so badly to impress were making up their minds that she wasn't worthy to wear her badge. She'd done nothing differently to Meg, and yet was languishing behind her with no way of catching up.

Tom had to find something soon.

She was concentrating so hard on getting her thumping heart to slow down that she did not see Chakotay. Colliding with him roughly she almost fell, but he caught her at the last minute and steadied her.

"Sorry Commander," she said quickly, letting go of his arm before he let go of hers.

"That's alright Cadet," he said, and for the first time in months Lilli thought she detected a note of friendliness in his voice. He let her go and stepped back slightly.

"Are you alright?"

She nodded.

"Just… rushing to help Neelix in the kitchen."

"Now there's a sentence I never thought I'd hear anyone say."

Lilli half-laughed, caught off guard.

"I should…" she gestured to the kitchen, moving in the direction of the hatch. "Sorry again."

He nodded.

"Good luck in there," he said. "Maybe you can reign his experimentation in a bit. I think we'd all be grateful."

"You can say that again!" Tom Paris appeared beside him, nodding enthusiastically. "How's it going in there Nova?" he asked cheerfully.

"Awesome," she flatly.

Tom laughed, and Chakotay half-smiled, before nodding at them at making his way to Tuvok's table. Once he'd gone, Tom's smile faded and he pulled Lilli gently to the side of the kitchen hatch where no-one could see them.

"What is it?" Nova asked urgently. "Do you know who hacked the footage?"

"I do," he replied. "But you're not going to like it."


End file.
